How Job Loss Can Actually Be a Career Boost

It’s said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. As inspiring as it may sound, what if you suddenly found yourself caught up in a predicament that can potentially crush all your hopes and dreams? What would you do if you suddenly lost your job? While some would simply sulk under its painful pangs, others realize that they can’t afford to simply let that pain waste away. Instead, their die-hard spirit compels them to use it as a lesson to teach them to be stronger than before. Which begs the question, how can job loss actually be a career boost?

#1 Makes you realize the Dangers of Excessive Job Dependability

If there’s one thing that hopeless romantics have realized, it’s the fact that depending too much on your partner comes with dire consequences when you least expect it. Excessive dependability in a relationship makes you vulnerable to depression and heartbreak if your partner suddenly begins to cheat on you, mistreat you or even abruptly breaks up with you. Similarly, once you get laid off abruptly, you get to have a first-hand experience of the consequences that befall a naive careerist. It means despair on your career hopes and a gaping void in your career future. And if you’re not careful, this negativity might actually lead to depression, disruption of family cohesion and if things get out of hand, drug addiction. Therefore, next time you get caught up in sudden job loss, you’ll keep your cool and avoid being a victim of psychological trauma and career despair.

#2 Gives you a Disguised Career Sabbatical to Re-energize and Strategize Ahead

While some misconceived careerists waste their precious time reminiscing over spilt milk, prudent careerists on the other hand close that chapter, and relax since they’re aware of the sabbatical that has presented itself. Thus, instead of perceiving the unemployment phase as a tragic season, they decide to enjoy it. But how? Remember, during a career sabbatical, one is given a year of paid leave to do things at their discretion. And in this case, you have the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. So instead of watching valuable time pass away, you can become a volunteer to boost your career reputation. Better still, who said that employment is the only option? Some internships are much more rewarding than jobs. In fact, why not do all that while taking advantage of an opportunity to travel and explore the world, study a foreign language and acclimatise to various cultures? That way, such pre-occupation will present the perfect opportunity for you to re-energize your career momentum and decide on the next career strategy to implement.

#3 Provokes you to Think Differently and Tap into Neglected Market Niches

Maybe you were initially engaged in a job that only involved doing the same routine tasks. But then, you watched the business crumble and as a result, the company fired you in a bid to make staff cuts. But then you realize that maybe, you needed to do things differently. Take the founder of WhatsApp, Mr. Jan Koum. After his last job, he only had $5,000. Later on, he realized an untapped gaping market niche in mobile telephony social media. He then brought in a co-founder Brian Acton to help him devise a perfect app that would personalize social interaction. Even Facebook refused to hire him when he once applied for a job there. But now, him, his co-founder and his venture capitalist partner Jim Goetz are $19Bn dollars richer. If they had stuck to their routine skills, then WhatsApp would be just another mere application experiment devoid of global sensation.

#4 Amplifies the urge for Independence and Self-Reliance

This largely applies to those who’ve been unemployed for long and to be honest, some of us weren’t born for jobs. Yes, we might want to deny it but there are certain peers in our lives that have constantly been losing their jobs while others were caught up in scandals that completely destroyed their career reputation. Such a careerist is already tired of doing the same things by the book over and over again since in any case, the outcome has always been consistent rejection. Therefore, the only option left is to become your own boss because there is no use in wasting time with efforts that will come with guaranteed failures. Yes, you may start small but with time you realize the peace that comes with owning a business in which you call the shots. I mean, who’s going to fire you from your enterprise anyway?

#5 Instills Financial Toughness and Discipline

Many career newbies after having secured their first jobs are usually eager to take mortgages and loans in a bid to have that professional ’non- recent graduate’ look. Unfortunately, job losses are as indifferent to inexperienced careerists as they’re to experienced careerists. Companies have been known to abruptly ’re-organize themselves’ and consequently fire irrelevant employees. Woe unto you if you’re a newbie with such financial responsibilities. To begin with, the bank expects a certain monthly contribution or else your property gets repossessed and you end up being homeless. However, what if you have no such financial calamities but still you’ve been maintaining a lavish lifestyle? What would you do if your fixed income suddenly disappeared? Do you have an investment package up your sleeves? And what if an entrepreneurial opportunity presents itself? Will you have the necessary savings to kick off? Think about it...

#6 Crushes Career Mediocrity

Ultimately, when you lose your job, you’ll want to know why you lost it in the first place. Maybe your prior neglect of academic credentials was haunting you for quite a while before catching up with you unprepared. A good example is a Kenya Airways female executive whom after recent investigations, the airline realized had wasted her opportunity to study overseas by stripping for clubs in the Bronx, New York. And how about your track record of work performance? Was it inconsistent? Maybe being laid off might be a wake-up call for you to mend your career weak links and abandon certain habits that nurtured career mediocrity.

For those familiar with Medicine, you know that there are some diseases that are actually self-mechanized immunities. Take small pox for instance. Once you contract this disease, you’ll never suffer from it ever again since your body gets life immunity. The same is true of job loss. Once you suffer from it for the first time, then consequent job losses will only serve to strengthen your immunity against career despair by making you emerge stronger through every career challenge you face in life.